Pac-12 task force calls for end to one-and-done, establishment of regional recruiting combines run by NCAA

Commissioner Larry Scott last week provided a peek into the findings of a task force created in the aftermath of FBI indictments that ensnared USC and Arizona and exposed deep corruption in the sport.

They include changes to the recruiting process, increased enforcement and the adoption of college baseball rules, by which players turn pro out of high school or enter college for at least three years.

The task force’s recommendations — 50 pages strong — will be sent to the NCAA’s commission on reform, led by Condoleezza Rice.

“(The reforms) will help preserve the integrity of collegiate basketball and provide the choice, education and protection that our student-athletes deserve,” Scott said.

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Here are the details:

Eligibility: End the one-and-done era and allow prospects to be drafted out of high school. Players who enter college must stay at least three years. If they declare for the draft but don’t sign with a team, they could return to college with eligibility intact.

“This will reduce the incentives to engage in behavior that violates NCAA rules, enable those who have the opportunity to play in the NBA after high school to do so, and help ensure that those young people who come to college genuinely want to engage as students,” according to an explanation of the task force’s recommendations.

This of course, is entirely dependent upon support from the NBA and its players association, but commissioner Adam Silver has acknowledged the need to change the system.

Enforcement: Independent of the NCAA, a well-resourced enforcement unit would pursue major violations and broken into three sub-groups: investigative, adjudicative and punitive.

“The Conference believes decisive steps must be taken to ensure strong and even enforcement of these new rules as well as existing ones.”

Recruiting: Remove the AAU system, so deeply corrupted by the shoe/apparel and agents, from the recruiting process.

The task force recommends “shifting the recruiting process away from independent tournaments run by shoe/ apparel companies and other promoters to new regional ‘combine’ events to be co-sponsored by the NCAA and other organizations.”

Additionally, the task force calls for more transparency in campus visits, including the funding of those visits — all in an attempt to reduce third-party influence.

Shoe/apparel contracts: Full disclosure by universities and the coaches.

Education: Start making recruits, and their families, aware of the rules early in high school. Create mentorship programs for the elite players, and include for all recruits “access to professional guidance from agents.”

Said UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero, who served on the task force and has been a key voice in basketball matters on the national scene:

“We need to reform our rules, strengthen their enforcement, and rebuild confidence both in the integrity of our sport and of the educational mission of our universities.”

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